BLOCKADE, international law. The actual investment of a port or place by a
hostile force fully competent to cut off all communication therewith, so
arranged or disposed as to be able to apply its force to every point of
practicable access or approach to the port or place so invested.
2. It is proper here to consider, 1. by what authority a blockade can
be established; 2. what force is sufficient to constitute a blockade; 3. the
consequences of a violation of the blockade.
3. - 1. Natural sovereignty confers the right of declaring war, and the
right which nations at war have of destroying or capturing each other's
citizens, subjects or goods, imposes on neutral nations the obligation not
to interfere with the exercise of this right within the rules prescribed by
the law of nations. A declaration of a siege or blockade is an act of
sovereignty, 1 Rob. Rep. 146; but a direct declaration by the sovereign
authority of the besieging belligerent is not always requisite; particularly
when the blockade is on a distant station; for its officers may have power,
either expressly or by implication, to institute such siege or blockade. 6
Rob. R. 367.
4. - 2. To be sufficient, the blockade must be effective, and made
known. By the convention of the Baltic powers of 1780, and again in 1801,
and by the ordinance of congress of 1781, it is required there should be a
number of vessels stationed near enough to the port to make the entry
apparently dangerous. The government of the United States has, uniformly
insisted, that the blockade should be effective by the presence of a
competent force, stationed and present, at or near the entrance of the port.
1 Kent, Com. 145, and the authorities by him cited; and see 1 Rob. R. 80; 4
Rob. R. 66; 1 Acton's R. 64, 5; and Lord Erskine's speech, 8th March, 1808,
on the orders in council, 10 Cobber's Parl. Debates, 949, 950. But "it is
not an accidental absence of the blockading force, nor the circumstance of
being blown off by wind, (if the suspension and the-reason of the suspension
are known,) that will be sufficient in law to remove a blockade." But
negligence or remissness on the part of the cruisers stationed to maintain
the blockade, may excuse persons, under circumstances, for violating the
blockade. 3 Rob. R. 156 .) 1 Acton's R. 59. To involve a neutral in the
consequences of violating a blockade, it is indispensable that he should
have due notice of it: this information may be communicated to him in two
ways; either actually, by a formal notice from the blockading power, or
constructively by notice to his government, or by the notoriety of the fact.
6 Rob. R. 367; 2 Rob. R. 110; Id. 111, note; Id. 128; 1 Acton's R. 6 1.
4. - 3. In considering the consequences of the violation of a blockade,
it is proper to take a view of what will amount to such a violation, and,
then, of its effects. As all criminal acts require an intention to commit
them, the party must intend to violate the blockade, or his acts will be
perfectly innocent; but this intention will be judged of by the
circumstances. This violation may be, either, by going into the place
blockaded, or by coming out of it with a cargo laden after the commencement
of the blockade. Also placing himself so near a blockaded port as to be in a
condition to slip in without observation, is a violation of the blockade,
and raises the presumption of a criminal intent. 6 Rob. R. 30, 101, 182; 7
John. R. 47; 1 Edw. R. 202; 4 Cranch, 185. The sailing for a blockaded port,
knowing it to be blockaded, is, it seems, such an act as may charge the
party with a breach of the blockade. 5 Cranch, 335 9 Cranch, 440, 446; 1
Kent, Com. 150. When the ship has contracted guilt by a breach of the
blockade, she may be taken at any time before the end of her voyage, but the
penalty travels no further than the end of her return voyage. 2 Rob. R. 128;
3 Rob. R. 147. When taken, the ship is confiscated; and the cargo is always,
prima facie, implicated in the guilt of the owner or master of the ship and
the burden of rebutting the presumption that the vessel was going in for the
benefit of the cargo, and with the direction of the owners, rests with them.
1 Rob. R. 67, 130 3 Rob. R. 173 4 Rob. R. 93; 1 Edw. It 39. Vide, generally,
2 Bro. Civ. & Adm. Law, 314 Chit. Com. Law, Index, h. t.; Chit. Law of
Nations, 128 to 147; 1 Kent's Com. 143 to 151; Marsh. Ins. Index, h. t.;
Dane's Ab. Index, h. t.; Mann. Com. B. 3, c. 9.

At the same time, this blockade which is faraway from the legal justification of attacking military targets, amounts to a collective punishment of the blocked population of Gaza which is an infringement of the most fundamental obligations to guarantee freedom of movement to Gazans, ensure normal civilian life and public and social order, and uphold basic human rights, as provided in Fourth Geneva Convention 1949 and IHL.

Under the blockade, following measures were taken by Israel:

Since its so-called withdrawal from Gaza, "Israel has done all sorts of landscaping in Gaza "ranging from cruel blockade to three rounds of violence which included bombing civilian infrastructure, air strikes on missile launch crews and military incursions in populous areas.

For the present author, however, Israeli practice in Lebanon in 2006 and in Gaza in 2009 constitute contemporary examples of NIACs in which the international community was (in the main) prepared to tolerate the imposition of blockades.

The law and operational practice of blockade were considered all but dead by many in the 1990s.

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